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French/U.S. Jason 2 launches to measure rising sea levels
By William Atkins
Friday, 20 June 2008 21:58
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The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 satellite was designed by the French and the Americans to monitor and measure the rising sea levels found throughout the world.
Thought to be caused by global warming, the changing currents of ocean waters are producing rising sea levels, which are threatening highly populated coastal communities, islands, and other low-lying regions of Earth.
The Jason 2 satellite will bring valuable information for scientists to analyze the changing oceans of the world.
Videos of the launch and subsequent activities in space are found at the NASA website “Mission posed to help us guage our rising seas.”
According to a NASA news release, the satellite is on a “… globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.” [NASA: “NASA Launches Ocean Satellite to Keep A Weather, Climate Eye Open”]
After its liftoff, the satellite separated from the second stage of the Delta 2 rocket at about fifty-five minutes of flight. It then extended its solar arrays for its directional position toward the Sun.
Currently, ground controllers are communicating with Jason and its telemetry (communications data link) indicates that all systems are running nominally.
According to the NASA news release,” Michael Freilich, the director of the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (Washington, D.C.), stated "Sea-level measurements from space have come of age. Precision measurements from this mission will improve our knowledge of global and regional sea-level changes and enable more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts."
More information on how Jason-2 will increase our knowledge of Earth's oceans follows on page two.
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